Boeing through the ages: Planes that changed the way we travel

By Karla Cripps, CNN

Updated 1:34 PM ET, Thu November 21, 2013

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Best of Boeing – The Boeing 747 is one of the iconic commercial jets of the 20th century. It arrived in the late 1960s largely because Pan Am thought bigger planes would be the answer to passenger congestion at airports. The 747 was 2.5 times the size of Boeing's earlier 707 model and was the world's first wide-body aircraft. Its distinctive front bulge came from placing the cockpit on an upper deck, allowing a freight-loading door in the nose. Pilots were trained to taxi this beast by sitting three stories high on a moving truck. Lufthansa received deliver of the 1,500th 747 on June 28.

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Boeing 80 – Built in 1928, the Model 80 was America's first airliner designed to transport passengers on a scheduled service. It had room for three crew, 18 passengers and 408 kilograms of cargo. The fuselage was covered in fabric. Pilots accustomed to open-air cockpits complained about the enclosed flight deck. Cost: $140,000.

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Boeing 247 – Debuting in 1933, the Boeing 247 held three crew, 10 passengers and 182 kilograms of mail. It had a range of 1,198 kilometers and a ceiling of 25,400 feet. The world's first truly modern airliner, it was also the first to incorporate and combine retractable landing gear. It took 20 hours to fly from New York to Los Angeles, including seven stops.

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Boeing 314 Flying Clipper Boat – The "Jumbo" of its time, the 314 Clipper made the first scheduled trans-Atlantic flight in 1939. It held 74 passengers and cemented regular flying on long-haul routes from North America across the Pacific to Asia and across the Atlantic to Europe. Its well-appointed cabin heralded the real birth of in-flight service.

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Boeing 307 Stratoliner – Based on the B-17 military bomber, Boeing's 307 Stratoliner first flew on December 31, 1938. It was the first commercial transport aircraft with a pressurized cabin, allowing it to fly above the clouds and bad weather. Howard Hughes bought one, and turned it into a "flying penthouse" with a bedroom, two bathrooms and lounge area.

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Boeing 707 – The 707 doesn't look like much now, but it started the 7-series of Boeing planes and is viewed as the jet that ushered in commercial air travel. It was the dominant passenger airplane of the 1960s.

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Boeing 727 – Boeing struck gold with the 727. Just 250 were planned, but demand was so high a total of 1,832 were built by the time production ceased in 1984. The most distinctive of Boeing's early jets, with a T-shaped tail and a trio of rear-mounted engines, the noisy 727 took its first flight in 1963. It was designed to use smaller, less developed runways, making it amenable to a host of out of the way airports.

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Boeing 737 – Chances are you've flown on a 737, which has been around since 1967. The best-selling jet in aviation history offered six-abreast seating, allowing more passengers per flight. The number of seats was increased by moving the engines under the wing. Flight engineers were made redundant by the 737's technology and a two-crew cockpit became standard.

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Boeing 777 – Upon hitting the skies in 1994, the 777 became the widest, most spacious jetliner in its class. Carriers have increasingly used the 777 as a fuel-efficient alternative to other wide-body jets, particularly for long-haul flights.

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Boeing 787 Dreamliner – The Dreamliner is said to have revolutionized jetliner design and brought commercial aeronautics into the 21st century. Its "plastic" fuselage makes it lighter and 20% more fuel-efficient than similar-sized aircraft, while it claims to enhance the passenger experience with bigger windows and more space. Nevertheless, Boeing's 787 Dreamliner launch gave the company a nightmarish ride. The four-month global grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet in early 2013, kicked off by a battery fire on an ANA flight in January, has been unprecedented in the past 30 years. The grounding was lifted at the end of April 2013.

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Boeing 777X – Boeing officially launched its 777X program this week at the Dubai Air Show. The 8X version will offer a range of more than 9,300 nautical miles and have room for 350 passengers. The 9X will have a range of over 8,200 nautical miles and fit 400 passengers. Notable changes from the original 777 include a longer, composite wing and a new GE engine. Production is scheduled to begin in 2017 and first delivery is targeted for 2020.

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Story highlights

Boeing secured 259 orders and commitments for its 777X commercial jet this week

Boeing 707 credited with ushering in the golden age of commercial air travel

Company execs say Dreamliner will be as reliable as the Boeing 777 in six months

There must have been some pretty wide smiles on the faces of Boeing executives waking up in Dubai earlier this week.

The U.S.-based plane maker secured 259 orders and commitments at the launch of its 777X commercial jet at the Dubai International Air Show -- "the largest product launch in commercial jetliner history by dollar value," touts Boeing.

Boeing says the combined value of the agreements is more than $95 billion at list prices, a better result than some aviation watchers were expecting.

"We knew it was coming, and we knew it would be big, but the size and scale of the 777X order was still very impressive," says aviation journalist Stephen Trimble of Flightglobal.com.

"The only surprise is that no Asian carrier or leasing companies joined the launch party. Usually, the aircraft companies like to launch with a slightly more diverse mix of customers, but that's being a little nit-picky."

It couldn't have come at a better time for the company, stinging from the three-month grounding of its Dreamliner fleet that ended in April this year.

Here are some of the other game changers the U.S.-based aircraft maker has produced.

Boeing 707 -- the golden age of commercial air travel

Many aviation analysts credit the Boeing 707 with ushering in the golden age of commercial air travel.

When Boeing launched the plane in the early 1950s, it had less than 1% of the commercial airliner market.

"(Company) president Bill Allen persuaded the firm's board to make an audacious gamble and develop the first American jetliner," writes Sam Howe Verhovek in "Jet Age," a book about the titans, engineers and test pilots who raced to design a safe and lucrative passenger jet.

"As the industry giants Douglas and Lockheed held off on jets and instead competed with each other to build the most luxurious propeller-driven airliners, Bill Allen and Boeing jumped headlong into the future."

For five years, Boeing couldn't persuade a single customer to buy their new jet -- in either its military or civilian configuration.

Until August 1955, that is, when 350,000 people gathered around Seattle's Lake Washington for the famed Gold Cup hydroplane races.

"His demonstration of the 707 prototype, including a completely unauthorized full circle barrel roll of the $18 million jet, stunned the crowd and infuriated Bill Allen, who ordered Johnston into his office for an immediate dressing down."

Legend has it, Allen asked Johnston what the hell he was doing.

His reply?

"Selling airplanes."

Old Tex kept his job and the plane went on to be one of the most commercially successful jets of all time, dominating air travel through the 1960s and into the 1970s.

"The B707 was Boeing's first transatlantic and transcontinental, four-engined aircraft and from this 120-seater evolved the jumbo, the B747," says Phil Seymour, president and COO of the International Bureau of Aviation (IBA), an aviation consultancy.

The 707 was intended as a medium-range transport plane but made scheduled flights across the Atlantic and across the North American continent.

A smaller version, the 720, was created for short-to-medium routes with a fuselage nine feet shorter and turbofan engines.

If we erase launch figures from the picture, the 747 is the Boeing jet that had the greatest impact on the global travel market, says Flight Global's Trimble.

The 747 debuted at the Paris Air Show in 1969.

"It really paved the way for the 787 model."

The 747 program was launched in 1966, when Pan American World Airways announced a $525 million order for 25 Boeing 747s.

By September 1966, orders had reached $1.8 billion.

The first 747-100 entered commercial service with Pan American in 1970, on a New York-to-London flight.

"It was game changing at the time," says IBA's Seymour. "Airports had to have wider taxiways and larger passenger terminals.

"Now we see the advent of even more efficient engines and wing design that take this to the next level in terms of lower fuel burn, lower noise and longer range."

Today, Boeing has delivered more than 1,400 747s to airlines around the world -- not bad for a plane now into its fifth decade.

Since its debut at the Paris Air Show in 1969, the company has introduced a number of variations to the 747 family, including the 747-100, 747-200 and 747-300. The most common flown by international travelers today are versions of the 747-400, of which production ended in 2009.

Boeing announced in October that it will adjust the production rate for the 747-8 program from 1.75 airplanes to 1.5 airplanes per month through 2015 because of lower market demand for large passenger and freighter airplanes.

Boeing's 777 program kicked off in 1990 with the 777-200, with the first delivery going to United Airlines in 1995.

The 777 carries more than 300 passengers.

It's the world's largest twin jet, carrying more than 300 passengers up to 9,380 nautical miles (17,370 kilometers), depending on the model.

The plane is lauded for bridging a capacity difference between smaller jets and the likes of the 747, allowing airlines to expand their networks by flying on longer, thinner routes with too few passengers to fill a jumbo jet.

It was Boeing's first fly-by-wire commercial jet -- Airbus holds the crown for being first with its A320 -- meaning it used an electronic interface instead of conventional manual flight controls.

"The improvement in engine reliability meant that two engines could be a safe as four, so the B777 soon became the long-range aircraft of choice and now we see the advent of even more efficient engines and wing design that take this to the next level in terms of lower fuel burn, lower noise and longer range," says Seymour.

Carriers have increasingly used the 777 as a fuel-efficient alternative to other wide-body jets, particularly for long-haul trans-oceanic flights.

Since the first 777 entered service in June 1995, the airplane has flown almost 5 million flights and accumulated more than 18 million flight hours.

Boeing 737 and 757 -- short-haul workhorses

It doesn't impress with size or technology.

Boeing 737. The best selling commercial plane of all time.

But if you've ever flown, chances are you've been on a 737.

"The shorter range market cannot be mentioned without reference to the most successful aircraft type of all time, the B737," says Seymour

The best selling jet in aviation history, the twin-engine 737 is credited for giving airlines the chance to offer six-abreast seating, allowing more passengers per flight and a cost-effective way for airlines to amp up regional networks.

Boeing has delivered more than 7,500 737s throughout the world.

Its first flight was in 1967 and it entered service in 1968, fast becoming the go-to plane for short-haul flights.

"It has evolved over time and the new 737MAX provides similar attributes to the new 777X, that is improved engine technology and enhanced wing design," says Seymour.

His personal favorite is the B757, "comfortable enough for transatlantic flights yet also at home on one-hour commuter sectors."

"Boeing have not really replaced it, so despite the generally positive comments I have about Boeing and what it has done for us all, the gap left by the lack of a B757 replacement bemuses me," he says.

On November 28, 2005, Boeing wrapped up the 23-year run of the single aisle 757 passenger airplane with the delivery of the 1,050th and final plane to Shanghai Airlines.

It was touted as the future of aviation, a super-efficient plane rocking cutting edge technology that thumbed its nose at the size of the Airbus A380 super jumbo and would change the way we fly.

The Dreamliner got off to shaky start, but analysts believe it has a bright future.

Then everything went wrong.

The three-month global grounding of the entire Dreamliner fleet after an ANA flight was diverted following a battery fire in January of this year was the first such global shutdown in 30 years.

Since the ANA incident, Dreamliner's list of problems have included a United Airlines emergency landing in Houston due to brake problems, a fire on an Ethiopian Airlines Dreamliner at Heathrow Airport and plane groundings and investigations into a faulty fuel pump indicator, an electric panel, a plane oven and emergency beacons.

The more serious issues have since been resolved, with Boeing execs in Dubai this week telling reporters it will be another six months before all the problems are behind them and the plane is as reliable as the 777.

The latest incarnation of Boeing's Dreamliner, the 787-9, took its maiden flight in September, completing a test run of more than five hours. It's 206 feet long -- 20 feet longer than its predecessor -- and holds 40 more passengers. (The 787-8 can hold 210-250 passengers.)

Delivery is scheduled to its first customer, Air New Zealand, in mid-2014.

According to Boeing, 26 customers have ordered 396 787-9s, accounting for approximately 40% of all 787 orders.

Final assembly and flight tests are scheduled to begin in 2017, with first delivery tentatively scheduled in 2018.

The company says the 787-10 will fly up to 7,000 nautical miles and have seating for 300-330 passengers.

Abu Dhabi-based airline Etihad added 30 of the 787-10 planes to its current deal for 41 Boeing 787-9 jets in Dubai this week.

"Its early entry into service problems are due to the leap in technology it has made, but in my opinion it will live up to its promises in the long term," says Seymour.

"Its composite structure and move to electric systems do really make it a game changer."

Boeing 777X -- reliable efficiency

The just-launched 777X is Boeing's attempt to balance the best of the 777 with the cutting edge technology of the 787.

Middle East-based airlines are pushing production of the 777X.

It's early days with this plane and time will tell what role it will take in shaping the travel and aviation industries.

Notable changes include a longer, composite wing and a new GE engine, which are enough to make it 12% more efficient than the competition, says Boeing.

"Obviously, Boeing decided that a new wing and a new engine were enough, so they didn't need to recapitalize the supply chain for the 777 fuselage," says Trimble.

He adds that Boeing may do new things with the fuselage to make it lighter, such as switching to an aluminium-lithium material, although the company hasn't confirmed that.

"They also backed away from the electrical architecture of the 787, and use conventional pneumatics to pressurize the cabin and de-ice the wing. We'll see if their bets pay off."

If Boeing had gone down the route of taking the all new 787 design and systems into the 777 market the development phase would have delayed the entry into service by around five to eight years, Seymour says.

"Boeing could not afford to wait that long, as the Airbus A350 XWB would have taken too much market share," says Seymour. "So taking the successful 777 and developing it provides a balance between known reliability and efficiency.

"The new wing/engines combination should provide exactly what the airlines want -- reliable and efficient aircraft."

The 777X family includes two jets: the 777-8X and 777-9X. The 8X will offer a range of more than 9,300 nautical miles and have room for 350 passengers.

The 9X will have a range of more than 8,200 nautical miles and fit 400 passengers.

As of this week's launch, the buyer list for the revamped 777 is made up of Lufthansa with 34 airplanes; Etihad Airways with 25; Qatar Airways with 50 and Emirates with 150.

Production of the 777X is scheduled to begin in 2017 and first delivery is targeted for 2020.

Who's calling the shots?

The big story in Dubai this week was the Gulf airlines and their deep pockets -- their spend is helping fuel orders for the types of commercial airplanes now being developed and produced.

"There is little doubt that the 777X and A350-1000 evolved out of Middle East carrier demand for long-range large aircraft," says Seymour.

"To some extent these aircraft could be seen as a threat to the established legacy carriers in Europe, providing the Gulf carriers with even more fuel efficient and long-range competition. It was inevitable that the first orders for the 777X would be from the Gulf region."

"United Airlines launched the original 777, and was actually once a sister company of Boeing in the very early days of commercial aviation," Trimble explains.

"So they used to have the largest role in shaping the requirements. That role drifted to Asia and especially Japan on the 787. Now, that role is played by the Middle East. As they are the big spenders, it makes sense that Boeing wants to make sure they are happy first."